How Whistle Blowers Flipped Boehner on Holder

Just days ago, House Speaker John Boehner shocked the conservative world by at last granting his long-awaited approval for next week’s contempt of Congress vote against Attorney General Eric Holder. But it wasn’t the thought of doing what’s right for the family of Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata, or others killed in the Regime’s Fast and Furious scheme that prompted the Speaker’s decision. After all, Mr. Boehner is hardly one to risk a loss of political advantage—or more importantly, anger the national media—just because a few hundred people have been killed by his Democrat friends.

No, the very cautious Congressman Boehner and other Republican leaders at last chose to take a stand because of reports that “…at least one and perhaps two sources within the Justice Department…have approached the Issa committee seeking whistle blower status.”

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For weeks, it has been suggested that House and Senate committees investigating Eric Holder’s participation in Operation Fast and Furious were receiving vital information from a leak in the Department of Justice. An example of said information is the collection of wiretap applications produced by the House Judiciary Committee last week—documents proving that Attorney General Holder and others at the Department had been lying to Congress in claiming no knowledge of ATF tactics in its scheme of smuggling guns to Mexico.

In a letter to Holder, Darrell Issa made it clear, “…the wiretap applications amply demonstrate the immense detail documenting gun walking tactics that should have prompted senior officials in the (DOJ) Criminal Division to shut down the program immediately.” Yet for the past year, Holder and his DOJ minions had maintained that the Operation was not halted because the Department knew nothing of the ATF’s reckless and illegal tactics. That was a lie, and thanks to the DOJ employee or employees now seeking whistle blower protection, Holder and his colleagues are STUCK with it.

Yesterday, Congressman Issa wrote a second letter to Holder in response to a desire to meet expressed by the Deputy Attorney General, Holder’s second-in-command. Issa makes it clear he’ll stand for no further lies or delays by the DOJ. With the contempt vote already scheduled next week and the Speaker and other House leaders apparently on board, finally persuaded by the information provided by whistle blowers that they hold a winning hand, Issa is at last in position to dictate rather than cajole. “If the Department of Justice submits a serious proposal for how it intends to alter its refusal to produce critical documents subpoenaed by the Committee, I am ready and willing to meet and discuss your proposal.”

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But if the DOJ wishes to continue its game of “delay and obfuscate”, the contempt vote will take place. Republicans unwilling to take the Attorney General to task will have to defend their decision to their constituents.

Eric Holder knows he is in a very tough spot. And it took the few remaining honest officials in the Justice Department to put him there. Of course, those very courageous individuals are also responsible for convincing the weak-kneed Speaker of the House to fulfill his obligations to the people of the United States. These DOJ employees may be among the very few heroes of Fast and Furious.

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